The Western Sugar plant continues to process the sugar beets brought in on a limited quota by Lovell district farmers, with some of the once-frozen beets being stored in segregated piles near the Lovell factory. While another cold week looms on the horizon, farmers are waiting and wondering when they’ll be allowed to bring in more of their crop.
Cowley beet farmer Rodney Crosby said quotas have been shut off for the time being and he doesn’t expect the Western Sugar factory to start accepting beets again until around Nov. 14.
“That won’t come close to helping us, but it’s better than nothing,” Crosby said.
Many farmers have been waiting to bring in more beets because quotas are currently on hold due to extra quotas allowed early last week because of expected frigid temperatures.
In the mean time, 31 out of 70 Lovell area growers elected to sell some of their beets to Wyoming Sugar in a deal made between Western Sugar and the Worland sugar processing plant last week. Crosby said he would get more per ton from his insurance plan than what Wyoming Sugar is offering to pay, so there is nothing he can do with his beets but wait. Several Lovell district growers are in the same position as Crosby, but many uninsured farmers have no choice but to travel to Emblem and sell their beets for the reduced rate.
The beets still in the ground are regenerating slightly, Crosby said, but a cold weather forecast for next week could mean the end of the 2009 beet dig. And farmers can’t pull the beets from the ground to beat the cold because they still aren’t storing well long-term, Crosby said. A simple test is to cut off part of the beet and squeeze. If water comes out, that means the beet won’t store, Crosby said.
“They’re regenerating some, but I don’t think they’re going to make it,” Crosby said. “The ones that are damaged the most are the big ones above the ground. I think they just got too frozen.”
Farmers are constantly checking their crops, and the sugar factory is monitoring the beets as they come in. Western Sugar representatives toured farms in the Lovell district on Monday and Tuesday to assess the condition of the beets.
Ric Rodriguez, a Park County farmer and the vice chairman of the Western Sugar Board of Directors, said Western Sugar would look at the condition of the beets for storage and the weather forecast to determine when farmers would be allowed to bring in more beets.
According to accuweather.com, forecasted low temperatures will be in the 20s through Wednesday, Nov. 11, but could dip into the low teens late next week and the following week.
The factory has enough beets on the ground to continue processing until Nov. 13, Rodriguez said, as long as it runs smoothly and without delays or downtime. Rodriguez said he couldn’t say when farmers would be allowed to bring in more beets, but he said he hasn’t observed very much improvement with the beets still in the ground, and they continue to lose sugar content as they regenerate themselves.
“The question is how long will they store?” Rodriguez said. “We’re not finding anything that will store long term.”
Rodriguez said the harvest in the Lovell district is slightly more than 50 percent complete.
Crosby said the weather was perfect as of Tuesday, and he hoped it would stay dry and warm and give him another two or three weeks to finish up the 100 acres of beets he has yet to harvest.
“We probably haven’t got three weeks,” he said.
Crosby said he began purchasing crop insurance three or four years ago, and he has used the insurance twice so far.